Light.EmbeddedResources

Get hold of embedded streams the easy way...

Are you one of the C# devs that doesn't know by heart how to get hold of an embedded resource? Light.EmbeddedResources makes it easy for you via extension methods:

// Either get it as a stream
using var stream = this.GetEmbeddedStream("EmailTemplate.html");

// ...or as a string
string value = this.GetEmbeddedResource("EmailTemplate.html");

If you work in a static method, you can use types:

using var stream = typeof(MyCurrentType).GetEmbeddedStream("EmailTemplate.html");
string value = typeof(MyCurrentType).GetEmbeddedResource("EmailTemplate.html");

Just make sure that the instance / the type you call GetEmbeddedStream or GetEmbeddedResource on is in the same assembly and namespace as the resource you want to retrieve.

...or copy them to files

You need to prepare a context, e.g. when you dynamically create PDF files out of prepared templates and the user data? You can easily copy your embedded resources to the file system:

this.CopyEmbeddedStreamToFile("EmailTemplate.html", Path.Combine(targetDirectory, "template.html"));

Of course, there is also an overload that works with types.

How to structure your code

I tend to have my embedded resource files directly next to the types that use them, so that I can simply call the extension methods on the target instances. My folder structure could e.g. look like this:

- Contracts
  |- ContractEmailSender.cs // a class that uses embedded resources
  |- Contract.html // embedded email template that will be converted to a PDF file
  |- company-logo.png // logo that will be embedded in the html file via the HTML-to-PDF engine

If you prefer to have all your embedded resources in one folder or in different assemblies, then create a type next to them to allow easy access:

- EmbeddedResources
  |- Resource1.json
  |- Resource2.xml
  |- Resources.cs
- OtherNamespace
  |- SomeService.cs // This service needs to access EmbeddedResources in another namespace / assembly

In this case, Resources and the client call site could be implemented like this:

public readonly struct Resources
{
    public static readonly Instance = new Resources();
}

public class SomeService
{
    public void SomeFunction()
    {
        using var resource1Stream = Resources.Instance.GetEmbeddedStream("Resource1.json");
    }
}

Supported Frameworks

Light.EmbeddedResources is compiled for

• .NET Standard 2.0
• .NET 5.0

and runs on all platforms that support these (like full .NET Framework, Mono, Xamarin, Unity, UWP, etc.).

How to install

Light.EmbeddedResources is available as a NuGet package:

• via csproj: <PackageReference Include="Light.EmbeddedResources" Version="1.1.0" />
• via .NET CLI: dotnet add package Light.EmbeddedResources --version 1.1.0
• via VS Package Manager: Install-Package Light.EmbeddedResources -Version 1.1.0